(AP) PORTLAND - A new report says America’s lobsters are now being overfished off New England.

The Regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said the stock has declined by 34% since 2018 in its most important fishing grounds.

The commission says it now considers overfishing of the species to be occurring, and that could bring new management measures that restrict fishermen from catching them in the future.

Lobsters are among America’s most lucrative seafood species.

They were worth more than $700 million at the docks last year.

The industry caught record high numbers of the crustaceans in the 2010s.

The assessment said the decline and overfishing were taking place in fishing areas off Maine and Massachusetts where most lobster fishing takes place.

The assessment al

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